Accessing a USB device

[Jimmy Reds]

Hi,

I have a blood glucose meter (a Lifescan OneTouch Ultra in case anyone
was wondering) which I connect to my PC using a USB cable and I would
like to have a go at accessing the data on this device without having
to use the software provided by Lifescan. The software is free and is
okay but it's not very good at manipulating the data.

Although I connect my meter using a USB cable, it can be connected by a
serial cable (there is a 3.5mm input jack which the cable plugs into)
so I think the key to accessing the device is through the cable itself
and the drivers which come with it.

My question is really how do I even get started? I've looked around
for guides on accessing UDB devices and I can't really find much info.
I think I'm right in assuming that I don't try and access the device
directly but use the drivers provided.

Sorry to sound a bit dumb. Just a few basic pointers would be a great
help.

Thanks,

Jimmy.

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Jimmy,

If there is a serial connection, then you might want to consider using
that. It will be slower, but there are classes in the framework (2.0 and
up) which allow you to handle Serial devices.

You will want to use the classes in the System.IO.Ports namespace to
access the port to your device.

Beyond that, you have to figure out the protocol for getting the data.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jimmy Reds]

Nicholas,

I've just had a look in one of the INF files that the driver CD
installed and it says the following in the first two lines :

; SERWPL.INF - INF file for USB-to-Serial Device
; Copyright (C) 2001, Prolific Technology Inc.

So I'm going to see if I can use the serial port classes to access the
device. I think the cable is simply a custom built USB to Serial
cable.

Thanks for the advice.

Jimmy.